PSYC 4110 Final

definition: The improvement in performance of cognitive, motor or perceptual skills that develops with training; learning gained mostly without conscious awareness; process by which knowledge of a complex environment is acquired largely independent of conscious awareness of specific components of that environment

example: When one learns how to use a number pad on a keyboard it is mainly implicit learning – you practice (repetition) but it’s not something you really focus your attention on learning; another example is serial-reaction-time procedures when sequence learning occurs and reaction times become faster over practice trials

Fan effect

definition: Idea that the more associations one has with an item in memory the weaker the connection to the associated things there will be – if there are too many things that associate with that item, you spread yourself too cognitively thin to prime every one of those associations

example: The word “dog” has a lot of associations, therefore, there are a lot of extraneous connections that your brain will immediately pull up when you hear the word “dog”. However, “antidisestablishmentarianism” is a more abstract or unique word that could prime specific associations very strongly because there are fewer of them (or none at all); it's a ripple effect with the rings closer to the point of impact have stronger associations than the ripples further out

Encoding specificity principle

definition: Tulving says that one is more likely to retrieve information if the cues that were present at encoding can also be presented when one is trying to retrieve information - matching cues between encoding and retrieval

example: (1) word pairs - if you are given the word "light" and it is paired with "head", when the word "dark" is presented, your retrieval for light is much lower than when "head" is presented as the cue

(2) If you go to the other end of the house to get something, and then forget what you were going after by the time you get across your house, you can go back to the room you started in to present yourself with the stimuli that were present when you decided to go get the item at the other end of the house

Hypermnesia

definition: Remembering that improves over successive attempts at reproduction of the studied material, as opposed to losing the material over time

example: (1) Being given a list of names, one might only remember 10 of the names after the first test – After a few days without any rehearsal, the person remembers 23 of the names when retested

(2) ATI test retake without studying in between - I received 10% higher score

Short-circuit

definition: Moving from focusing on individual stimuli to the whole which causes the speed of the task to improve; Learning about a motor task well enough to not have to consciously think about performing the task

example: Instead of hunting and pecking at the keyboard when typing, you can fluidly type sentences/paragraphs without looking at the keyboard

Radial maze

definition: Used to test the cognitive mapping of rats – has eight or more arms radiating out from a central platform and all the arms are filled with food or rf of some kind. Once the rat has eaten the food from one arm, the food in that arm is not replaced. Therefore the rat must remember which arm has been eaten out of and to not return to it if it wants more food

example: see definition

Motor skills learning

definition: Acquisition of precisely adjusted movements in which the amount, direction and duration of responding corresponds to variations in the regulating stimuli

example: skill of playing tennis involves precise and accurate movements in response to momentary changes in stimulus conditions, often in anticipation of stimulus changes

Reminiscence

definition: (1) Similar to spontaneous recovery or hypermnesia

(2) Learning a task, normally a motor or verbal task, letting yourself rest and then when you come back you can perform the task better

example: If you practice a violin piece for an hour, then set the violin down for a day without practicing, the next day you remember the piece better due to reminiscence

Epic memory

definition: Details how humans are able to retain great amounts of information, relaying it accurately each time, but in a slightly different manner each time. First brought up by the topics of ancient singers/story tellers who memorized epic poems or songs to perform later and each performance was slightly different

example: A professor lectures from the same outline every time they teach the class but the lecture is not always verbatim of the previous lecture. Certain key phrases and stories might stick but not be delivered word for word as the last time they were presented

Learning disability

definition: Impairment of a specific cognitive ability, leaving other cognitive abilities unaffected, which can occur with average intelligence and can be comorbid with other disabilities

example: People who have a reading disability (such as dyslexia) are often proficient in other areas like math

example: I intentionally tell myself to remember to get gas on the way home from school and the act of telling myself heightens my probability of remembering to get gas

Savant and S

definition: Savants are persons with an exceptional cognitive ability in the presence of otherwise lower intelligence; S was a man who could remember extraordinary amounts of verbal material by visually encoding to-be-remembered material and he had synesthesia (condition of cross-modal perception)

example: A savant may be a calendar calculator, a person who can tell you what day of the week any date occurred on, but unable to perform basic reading skills

Context-specific learning

definition: Learning that is dependent or heavily influenced by the environment in which the original information was learned

example: Sitting in the same desk while taking an exam that you did when you learned the information for the exam

Field independence

definition: Learning that is dependent on details. Step-by-step learning. You see the tree but don’t even know you’re in the forest; focus on the separate parts of a whole, instead of the whole

example: When learning to play Monopoly you are inundated with information and have to focus on the details that the rules supply. If you don’t learn the game step-by-step then you end up playing the wrong game

Route knowledge

definition: Knowledge of a series of routes, directions or paths in a spatial environment

example: If you can remember your way home from work, then that is a form of route knowledge